10/31/23

∆ Tech in the News

Executive Action - Biden’s awaited order will compel AI companies to disclose AI safety tests and champions watermarking and responsible AI use in education.

ChatGPT Plus Plus? - OpenAI drops new beta features, allowing file uploads for analysis, mode switch to "Browse with Bing" and image uploads for DALL-E 3.

Apple's M3 Evolution - Last night’s ‘Scary Fast’ launch event unveiled a new Macbook Pro powered by the cutting edge new M3 and M3 Pro chips.

“Thinner Than Hair” - Nvidia's epic research shows GenAI can revolutionize semiconductor design by leveraging NeMo for intricately crafted ultra-thin chips.

$1K AI Wearable - Humane's soon-to-launch AI Pin announced its competitive price point seeking to usher in a new era in consumer computing.

Raised Expectations - Goldman Sachs forecasts the expected impact of generative AI adding 0.1 pps to US GDP growth by 2027 and 0.4 by 2034.

˚The hottest thing in tech this week

Musk vs Banking: Elon’s Financial Vision

Elon Musk, never one to shy away from monumental visions, is on the cusp of reinventing the financial realm with his dynamic ambition for 'X'. Elon sees X being the center of your financial world, handling anything in your life that deals with money by the end of 2024. Musk told X employees during a leaked all-hands call last Thursday “it would blow my mind if we don’t have that rolled out by the end of next year.”

The platform will likely offer high-yield money market accounts, debit cards, checks, and loan services, with the goal of letting users “send money anywhere in the world instantly and in real-time.” In addition, Musk has also discussed the role AI and web 3 technology will likely play in the transition of X to an “everything app.” The company is already trying to lock down money transmission licenses across the US to offer financial services and “moving toward launching a global payment system.”

Can Elon succeed where so many have failed and revolutionize online finance?

News Bytes

• Apple’s ‘Scary Fast’ event video was shot entirely on iPhone

• White House unveils AI.gov in move toward comprehensive AI oversight

• AI to speed up lung cancer diagnosis deployed in UK’s National Health Service Hospitals

Deals We’re Watching

Founders to Watch and Opportunities to Catch

Open Deals:

Nedge Computing Corp - A Deep tech startup enhancing Cloud-based remote computing (including in the growth category “edge networking”. Projected 50% CAGR reaching $55B ARR by 2030. Click to chat with CEO Peter Thomson.

Closed Deals:

AI Proxy Wars Intensify - After poor Cloud earnings, Google doubles down with a further $2B investment in Anthropic seeking to rival Microsoft and OpenAI.

Silver Linings - Lumentum rides the cloud computing wave with a $750M buy of startup Cloud Light, solidifying its position in the cloud tech sphere.

“ML Ecosystem is Broken” - Crypto Billionaire's nonprofit, Voltage Park, bought $500M in Nvidia chips to provide affordable AI computing access.

Renter-Centric Tech - Funnel Leasing wrapped a $32M Series B-2 round led by rent-tech leader RET Ventures for their AI-driven renting future vision.

Cloud Security for Chips - ZeroRISC lands a $5M seed led by UK’s prestigious Cambridge Angels to develop the first OpenTitan-based service for silicon chips.

Companies to Watch:

Seurat’s $350M Valuation - The 3D metal-printing startup closed a $99M Series C, co-led by Nvidia's NVentures and Capricorn's Tech Impact Fund.

Mega Move - Saudi Arabia’s $500B NEOM megaproject made a strategic $50M deal with Animoca Brands to integrate web3 development.

Cloud Computing On-Premise - Oxide Computer landed a $44M Series A for its AMD-powered product with Idaho National Lab trust as a client.

AI in Physical Security - Ambient.ai has seen 4X+ top-line and customer growth since 2022 and just raised $20M from Allegion’s VC fund for R&D and partnerships.

'Hyper-throughput' Biotech - Triplebar is led by a noted biochemist and closed a $20M Series A to optimize biomanufacturing efficiencies via AI and ML.

AI Goes Multilingual - AI translation startup Lilt partners with the National Weather Service to automate forecast translations in Spanish, Chinese and more.

The Funding Buzz (New)

Epic NVentures - Nvidia has significantly increased its VC deals this year with a focus on semiconductors, and 33 deals in robotics, AI, SaaS, and cloud startups.

Tools

Perplexity AI - Announced two new in-house chatbots with improved chat and ‘human-like’ text-gen skills.

Pika Beta 2.0 - Slashes Text-to-video production costs and timelines.

WatsonX - IBM introduced Watsonx Code Assistant.

If you have a deal or company that you would like to host on our next issue, drop us a line at @ [email protected].

Thanks for connecting with us.

The Tech Buzz Team